George Lois Work Quotations

In professional work - certainly in the arts and graphics - 99% of people have zero courage. They blow with the wind.

If you work with convictions, people have got to listen to you.

I look in the mirror, and I work with the brightest person I know.

Nobody should force you to do a bad piece of work in your whole life - no client, no creative director, nobody. The job isn't to please the client; the job is to produce something for the client that makes them incredibly successful.

To create great work, here's how you must spend your time: 1% Inspiration 9% Perspiration 90% Justification

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.

Doyle Dane Bernbach was a great, great agency when I got there. There was an arrogance that everyone had, but it was a closed club. I was a guy who worked a little differently. Edgier. More punch-in-the-mouth.

Whatever the creative industry, when you're confronted with the challenge of coming up with a Big Idea, always work with the most talented, innovative mind available. Hopefully... that's you.

I talk to all the creative directors today, and they take me aside, and they say, 'You know, it must have been great back in those days when you could do anything you wanted.' I say, 'Huh? Excuse me?' I mean, we fought. In the '60s and '70s, you fought wars with clients, and you have to continue fighting wars to do great work.